Fourth Wing (Special Edition) (The Empyrean, 1)

“You turned oranges into a weapon, Violence?” – Xaden RiorsonHigh fantasy, dragons, and an enemies-to-lovers romance in a world wrought with war? YES PLEASE! Okay, let’s start at the beginning, the part before I even start reading the book. Fourth Wing is everywhere: Bookstagram, BookTok, everyone and their mother AND brother have read Fourth Wing. I was interested. I had been putting it off for fear that it would disappoint. Well…when I started reading, I was thinking “Yeah, a nice new young adult fantasy with dragons. I hope it’s as good as Eragon!” Yes, I know I know…I found out very quickly that this is an adult fantasy and definitely NOT young adult. I could tell by the type font and layout, as if the sexuaI innuendos weren’t enough right from the get-go! And man…were some of them so cringy. What force on this planet made me even think it was young adult?!Some of the innuendos and just the bickering, bantering type of dialogue was so cringy and awful that I had to read parts aloud to my husband for a serious laugh. It was like twelve-year-olds who have heard about s3x but haven’t experienced it trying to talk about it. It was awful. Cringy. So terrible that I was affronted that I was still enjoying the book! One of the lines I remember most was something like “I want to climb him like a tree.” Okay. I get what she means…but if you picture that particular simile…what DOES that even mean? There were better choices out there than…a tree…🤦‍♀️Cringe aspect incoming: While I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope, in fact one of my favorites, the way this was set up made the characters feel flatter than paper. We have our main character, Violet, whose small size is constantly emphasized for a good portion of the novel. Yes, thank you for telling us for the FORTIETH TIME that she is small and petite. Point taken. Cool. She is also warned early on about the traitor son, Xaden Riorson, who from the moment he sees her, emphasizes his need to kill her. Except…every time he has the chance, there’s some dumb excuse as to why he didn’t. And then all of a sudden, he’s saving her from death MUTIPLE times, and then they are kissing. ⚔️ This is all well and good, or would be, IF there was more to the enemies aspect. There should have been more time taken to explore Xaden’s own hatred of Violet, and vice-versa. Xaden also has this little nickname for her: Violence. This is okay…sometimes. But number one, she isn’t violent. She will harm her opponent for survival purposes, but doesn’t want to kill anyone. Number two, Xaden uses the nickname even at the worst of times, like in the midst of battle where the air of the scenario should be more serious. Sometimes “Violence” is over-used and takes away from what is happening in a dire moment.Fourth Wing (Special Edition) (The Empyrean, 1)At least it gets better. After about halfway through the book (roughly page 250), the cringe isn’t there anymore. It’s like the author became a better writer AS she was writing. The (human) characters finally started getting some dimension to them, and the cringe-worthy dialogue (with one exception about measuring size, though it’s placement wasn’t too terrible) was no longer present. We finally get a little bit of Xaden’s hatred-turned-passion toward Violet, but still not enough to see why he would want to kill Violet personally, as opposed to attempting to kill her mother, the main responsible party for his misery, instead. I know there will be more books to explore this later, but to make the true enemies-to-lovers identity, and for it to feel genuine, there should have been a bit more from the start.What truly makes this book shine is the dragons. Absolutely everything about the dragons. The series is named after their mysterious governing council (or what it is perceived as, though may be something else entirely), the Empyrean. The dragons are intriguing characters who all deserve more page time, especially Andarna and Sgaeyl, as well as the secondary character’s dragons, which we don’t get to see a whole lot of. With the dragons having their own governing system and being respected as the highest of beings is great, they certainly deserved more. The dragons also channel magic into their riders, and each rider manifests their own unique power based on their inner self. The magic system is enjoyable and works well for this world.There are two parts about the book that absolutely make it phenomenal: Threshing, and the last 50 pages of the novel.Threshing is the day when riders get to go out into the field and try to bond with a dragon. The dragon must pick the rider, of course, and not the other way around. No spoilers, but this section comes somewhere between pages 120-180ish and is the part of the novel that truly had me hooked. I couldn’t put it down!The last 50 pages of the novel are the exciting battle one waits for in this kind of book. Once again, no spoilers, but with references throughout and the multiple reveals during this stretch of reading make for an action-packed cliffhanger ending making the reader itch for more. I don’t even know where this story will go from here. I know whatever happens, I’ll be along for the ride and I know I’ll have my wildest imaginings blown out of the water.Final consensus: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐💎Why? Overall, the entertainment value of this novel has great sway in my final rating. Despite complaining about cringy aspects, they offered great laugh-out-loud moments. Despite the flat characters at first, they definitely fill out a bit more later, and the thing is, one can’t hate on that. It’s only the beginning of the story (my understanding at the time of this blog post is that it is planned as a five book series). The dragons truly make this book phenomenal, and everything about the last 50 pages really brought this novel to become something more, to put forward the promise to an exciting war story with its fair share of romance…and loss. Yes…I even teared up a bit at one part. No matter what anyone tells you about the book, its entertainment value makes for a FIVE STAR DIAMOND of a novel… i.e. a MUST READ for all fantasy lovers and seekers of a top-tier book with dragons.

I was not one of the individuals who jumped on the fourth wing train when it released sadly. I thought the book was way overhyped due to the sprayed edges at first. I bought this limited special holiday edition with sprayed edges before it even had a release title though because I love a good fantasy read. It is entirely worth the hype however!! I fell in love with Fourth Wing and literally could not put it down consumed it entirely in a matter of days. This is quite literally one of the top 5 best fantasy books I’ve ever read!! The story was phenomenal, the characters so well written and you really get a feel of Basgiath through the book!! I don’t want to spoil anything for those contemplating reading it still, just know you want to read this more than once. You’ve got the enemies to lovers, that slow burn romance, the fantasy story, strong female lead character and the bad ass make who hates everyone. There are spicy scenes towards the end of the book for those wondering and are well written. As for this specific holiday edition, you get 2 bonus chapters written from Xadens Point of view, while not necessarily needed for the story, kind of give you a look into his feelings and emotions.Now as for my review of Amazon and the condition of this book; there is a sticker on the front cover that hopefully removes easily. The sprayed black edges came with damage to them and are terribly done sadly. I’m not sure that’s entirely Amazons fault, I’m seeing everyone’s copies from different places with damaged edges. The book however is beautiful.

Had this preordered before I even knew what it was! No pic, no title, no description, but I wasn’t taking the chance of it being a special edition of fourth wing and not getting a copy! The black and red cover design is absolutely beautiful, prettier than the regular gold cover. The black sprayed edges just make it that much better but I will say the black does flake off very easy, like it was rushed. This is a shelf trophy to me and not a copy to read. The story itself is absolutely amazing and an easy 5⭐️ read with a level 2ish spice. This is a romantasy set in a war college where cadets in the rider’s quadrant train to bond with a dragon and learn to ride their bonded dragon into battle. Fantastic enemies to lovers story.